Archbishop of Canterbury criticizes Israel’s renewed detention of Layan Nasir
[Episcopal News Service] Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has criticized the July 29 decision by an Israeli military court to continue to detain Layan Nasir, calling it an “egregious state of affairs,” according to a July 30 statement from the Lambeth Palace Press Office.
Nasir is a 23-year-old member of St. Peter’s Anglican Church in the occupied West Bank city of Birzeit. In April she was taken at gunpoint from her parents’ home without an arrest warrant or charges, and she has been held under administrative detention ever since.
The court’s July 29 decision extends that detention for another four months, to late November.
Welby criticized Nasir’s April arrest, saying he was “deeply shocked and concerned” by the news, and he called for her swift release.
Nasir’s mother, Lulu Nasir, told Sky News that soldiers arrived at the family’s home at 4 a.m. on April 6 and threatened them with guns as they searched the house before taking her daughter into custody.
The Episcopal Church has also called for Nasir’s release.
Renewing his call for her release, Welby condemned Israel’s widespread use of administrative detention of Palestinians as a “deeply discriminatory” practice that “cannot be legally or morally justified.”
He also noted that she is being held on what Israel says is classified evidence, which he said “leaves her facing unknown allegations with no way to disapprove them – not knowing when she will be released, all the time without being charged, tried or convicted.”
Welby also called on the Israeli government to look at her case again and to release her. He added, “The widespread and routine manner in which Israel uses administrative detention of Palestinians as an instrument of occupation is deeply discriminatory. It cannot be legally or morally justified.”
He concluded by asking God to watch over Nasir and to comfort her family “at this testing time.”
